Land Down Under – Men At Work

Ah. A song names after Australia. What more could I want? This song follows on from ‘Sex and Candy’, by Marcy Playground and is next in my current music series, which has taken a bit of a stumble over the last few weeks, but should hopefully be resuming with vigour over the next few days.

Enjoy!

So. Land Down Under, or Down Under, as some people call it, is sang by Men At Work, the Australian rock band. They sing about various different parts of back-packing across the world, as well as showing how patriotic the character is when asked about his (or her) home country.

We start off with hearing of their use of marijuana, whilst drive a VW Type 2 Combination Van, which has overheated, before hearing of their travels to Brussels and having bought bread there. We end with the idea of dying in a den in Bombay, presumable about the locals. All the while, the character tells of how great their home is and how they’re better off than the people they are around throughout the song.

Well, the song’s not too bad actually. I’ll be honest. It was already in my music collection when I started this series and it has since slipped out of my mental grasps. I’m not too much of a fan of it anymore, but since I’ve listened to it today, I think it’s re-won me. I like it again.

I don’t know why, but it might be to do with the simplistic tune, the whole flute thing or maybe, just maybe, be because it’s an obscure song. I like obscure.

So, what are my favourite lyrics? Well, I quite like the start. Here it is:

Travelling in a fried out combie,On a hippie trail, head full o’ zombie,I met a strange lady, she made me nervous,She took me in and gave me breakfast…

Simple lyrics and to any other tune, they wouldn’t work, but here, they do. Don’t ask me how, but it’s true. Listen to the song and tell me that the lyrics don’t work. You cant and do you know why? Because they do! Simple as. They get a bit… weird, towards the end, but they still work.

It misses something. I don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely something missing. Don’t get me wrong. I like it. I just don’t think it’s as… finished, as it could be. Probably just me. It is, however, a simple, yet musically effective song which gets you thinking.